Plagiarism scandal hits education chief

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Plagiarism scandal hits education chief

BERLIN — Germany’s education minister resigned Saturday after a university decided to withdraw her doctorate, finding that she plagiarized parts of her thesis — an embarrassment for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government as it prepares for elections this year. Merkel said she accepted with regrets the resignation of Annette Schavan, education and research minister since 2005. (AP)

Egypt

YouTube access blocked after riots

CAIRO — A Cairo court on Saturday ordered the government to block access to the video-sharing website YouTube for 30 days for carrying an anti-Islam film that caused deadly riots across the world. Judge Hassouna Tawfiq ordered YouTube blocked for carrying the film, which he described as offensive to Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. Protests against the film erupted in Cairo in September and spread to more than 20 countries, killing more than 50.
(AP)

Russia

Opposition leader under house arrest

MOSCOW — A Moscow district court ordered Sergei Udaltsov, a prominent opposition leader, to be placed under house arrest Saturday, in one of the most assertive legal measures to date against a leader of the anti-Kremlin protests that began more than a year ago. Udaltsov, the leader of the radical socialist Left Front movement, faces a charge of conspiracy to incite mass disorder, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
(New York Times)

ZAMBIA

Farmer chargedin fatal bus crash

LUSAKA — Police in Zambia have charged a 74-year-old farmer with causing a bus crash that killed 53 people, authorities said Saturday. Van ­Eenden Abraham of Mkushi, Zambia, faces dozens of charges of causing deaths by dangerous driving in Thursday’s crash near the town of Chifamba, 60 miles north of Lusaka. (AP)